Introduction
"Those who want to see must close their eyes." - Paul Gauguin
We perceive our surroundings visually. Light enters the eye, is transformed into electric current, passes the nervous system and is processed in the brain - a result of millions of years of evolution.
Visual communication has a long history, from early cave paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphs, the inventions of paper, moveable type, photography and film, to what we nowadays call the 'new media'.
At the same time, it is evident that not everything, even if it is right in front of our eyes, can be seen by our eyes directly. Alongside the development of visual media, the invention of telescopes, microscopes and computer-based imaging technology allowed us to see what used to be too far away, too small or simply invisible before. Now, we can see almost everything.
On a vacation to New York City, I found a visit to the Empire State Building to be very inspiring. There are literally millions of lights that can be seen from there - and those are not stars. The majority of this artificial light fulfils one purpose: to enter the eye of a human, at one point or another.
